No Compromises
by AmeliaPonders
Summary: "I love you, Rose," the Doctor said aloud, and then he held his breath and activated the dimension cannon. And with that, he left Pete's World to begin the most important journey of his life. The journey to save Rose Tyler.
1. Chapter 1

**No Compromises: Chapter 1**

_Pete's World, Present Day _

_5:30 PM_

"Don't be ridiculous," Rose said sternly. "Whatever it is, I'm going with you."

"No. You're. Not." He couldn't let her win this one. Usually, she got whatever she wanted, but this time there could be no compromise.

"Doctor, I thought we've agreed that you don't need to protect me all the time, and I thought we agreed it a long time ago. I'm a top agent at Torchwood. I can handle any time, any place, any aliens. And you said you it was important! I should help!"

The Doctor sighed. It wasn't that he didn't think she could "handle" this journey. But he couldn't tell her that, either. So he just stood there, in their kitchen, staring at her dumbly, mustering all of his strength to not just run out, knowing it would infuriate Rose.

"Doctor, I'm not a little girl anymore. We're _married_ for god's sake. Equals, yeah? So tell me why you feel the need to exclude me from this trip of yours on our TARDIS when she's only just gotten to the point where we can actually use her."

"It's just something I have to take care of on my own." The Doctor felt the anger that always hid deep inside him slowly prickling beneath the surface. He couldn't engage in this anymore for the sake of Rose's feelings. She was asking questions he couldn't answer right now, and he had no time to be arguing.

Rose noticed the way his jaw was set, the way his eyes had darkened but avoided her gaze. She rarely saw flashes of the "old" Doctor in her half-human husband these days, but he had all the same memories and sometimes that angst and pain got the better of him. She was sympathetic, but that wasn't an excuse for why he was being so evasive and short with her. "At least tell me where you're going. How long you'll be gone."

The more she badgered him, the less he could control himself. The Doctor snapped his head up and shouted through gritted teeth, "Why can't you just trust me?!"

Rose jumped, startled. He so rarely lost his temper with her in this way. Usually, he just brooded when something bothered him, until she dragged it out of him and they worked it out. She felt tears start to invade her eyes and blinked them back. She would not start crying like a little child because someone yelled at her. That was idiotic and also a weakness she didn't particularly want to show him at the moment. Her own anger rising, she shouted back. "I DO trust you, and you know that. But for you to just take off without telling me where you're going or why or when you'll be back is not fair and you know it."

"Don't talk to me about fair. If things were fair I wouldn't have had to make my best friend forget me. I wouldn't have lost you for two years. I wouldn't be stuck as a stupid _human_!" The last word was spoken with such disdain that the Doctor practically recoiled as he said it. An instant later, though, his whole body was flooded with regret. He'd taken it too far, had said too much.

Rose didn't bother stopping the tears this time. "Well. Nice to know what you really think. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go deal with my stupid human emotions," she said softly as she tread out of the room, every step heavy with sadness. The Doctor cringed at the sound of their bedroom door slamming. He had really hurt her, something he never meant to do – something he never, ever means to do. He longed to go to her, to tell her everything, to apologize and beg her to understand and not worry, but he couldn't. Besides, the current tension between them meant that she'd avoid asking him any more questions for awhile and that would keep her safer. He felt a tiny bit of reassurance at that, but couldn't think about this fight anymore. They'd been arguing for ten full minutes and time was of the essence; he had to get to the TARDIS now.

He scrawled a note on a piece of paper, left it on the kitchen table, and hurried out the back door to the garden where the TARDIS waited. He set to work at the console, putting in coordinates. From the bedroom, Rose heard the telltale grinding whir of the TARDIS taking off and cried harder.

The Doctor arrived at his first stop mere moments later. He'd only gone to the other end of London, to the woods not far from the Tyler Estate. His final destination wasn't somewhere he'd need the TARDIS to travel to, but he couldn't risk Rose finding out where he was going, so he wanted to leave the impression that he could be anywhere in the universe.

Little did she know, he wasn't going anywhere in _this_ universe.

About an hour of walking and tube rides later, the Doctor was at Torchwood, prepping a dimension cannon to take him to his former universe – _their_ former universe.

"I love you, Rose," he said aloud, and then he held his breath and activated the device. And with that, the most important journey of the Doctor's life began.

The journey to save Rose Tyler.


	2. Chapter 2

**No Compromises: Chapter 2**

_South London, 1988_

Jackie Tyler sighed. She was really beginning to regret this shopping trip and agreeing to the upcoming outing that spurned it. Bev had told her that she was going to have to leave the house sometime, and just because she was grieving didn't mean it wasn't okay to have some fun now and then. "Rose needs a fun mum," Bev had said gently, and that had sealed the deal. They were going dancing. She'd even convinced Jackie to get a new outfit, "so that you can feel special." It didn't feel special. It just felt pointless, like most of her life these days. But Bev had booked and paid for the babysitter and even given Jackie the money for the new clothes, so now Jackie was at Henrik's, looking through rack after rack and finding nothing that interested her. Maybe this whole thing was a mistake. Really, she just wanted to go home, hold Rose, drink some tea, and miss Pete. But she'd been doing an awful lot of that in the ten months since he'd died, and Jackie knew that Bev was right – she couldn't just mope around forever. Rose deserved better.

So far, Jackie's little daughter stayed faithfully by her mother, holding one hand and running the chubby fingers of the other across the ends of the garments she could reach, watching them sway. But they'd been at the store a while now, and Rose was starting to get antsy. She let go of Jackie's hands and started toddling around the large, round rack, making little noises. "Rose, darling, stay by me," Jackie warned as she sorted through a number of sequined dresses. Finally, she happened upon one that was a bright magenta, a color she knew her daughter loved. She took it off the rack and bent down to show it to Rose. She came face to face with the hem of a gown. Her toddler was nowhere in sight.

Jackie was nothing if not dramatic, but at this moment, she was pure steel. Panic was no good; she needed to get her baby and get her now. The little girl was always so curious, she surely just wandered farther than Jackie thought she could have in a few seconds. Jackie tried desperately to ignore the sick feeling screaming inside her, "_You're wrong. She's __gone_."

"Rose! Rose, come to Mummy!" She spoke loudly, but in a friendly voice so that Rose wouldn't think she was in trouble and hide. Sometimes that child was too clever for her own good.

Jackie knelt down to get a toddler's-eye-view and scanned the vast department store floor for Rose. All she saw were grown up legs and racks of clothing. "Rose!" It was getting harder not to panic. It suddenly seemed like there were ten million people around and no one at all. And the only person who mattered – this one tiny, precious girl who was all Jackie had left in this world – was absolutely nowhere.

Jackie screamed her child's name again as tears spilled over her cheeks.


	3. Chapter 3

**No Compromises: Chapter 3**

_Pete's World, Present Day _

_5:15 PM_

The Doctor was relieved to get home. It had been a long day at Torchwood, especially since Pete had insisted he fill out his expense reports. Though he had been in this world, this domesticity, for a few years now, he still marveled at the fact that he was just another bloke who was annoyed by expense reports and tired after work. He actually enjoyed this fact…especially since he and his wife had a TARDIS that could (almost) take them anywhere in time and space so he never felt too trapped.

Most of the time, anyway.

No matter what, there was a part of him that would never fully adapt to being part human. This part of him wasn't just Time Lord, but the certain _kind_ of Time Lord he once was; a wild, untamable master of the universe who, with fire in his eyes, stole a time machine and never looked back. Over the years, this part of him had faded quite a bit, and now that he was half human, it was just a fraction of his being. However small, though, it was something that helped make him who he was, and it was something that he needed. Odd as it sounded, he felt this feral part of him actually made him better for Rose; it was the part that would protect her at any cost, and the part that would never walk away from a noble fight.

He opened the door to the sweet, simple house he shared with his wife. She'd probably be home any minute, and he was eager to see her, but for now, he went over to their window seat (his favorite feature of this whole place), leaned against the wall, and looked out onto the yard, grateful for the silence. Silence, he was starting to finally accept, is not only something that arrives in devastation's wake. Sometimes, it actually means peace. Trusting peace, however, was something he was still working on. He smiled as he watched a bunny totter across the yard and congratulated himself on enjoying the simple things.

And then came the loudest noise he'd ever heard. It was accompanied by pain in his head that rivaled the pain of all of his regenerations combined.

The Doctor cried out, desperately grasping at his temples. The sound was like an alarm – sharp, quick high-pitched blasts. Just as quickly as the sound hit, it was replaced by vivid images that were chaotic and, at first, didn't make sense. Brightly colored clothing, shouts of "help me!" a little girl curled up under a rack of clothing, asleep, using the fluffy fake flowers on bottom of a bright orange gown as a pillow. The Doctor thought the images were vaguely familiar, but the head-splitting pain made it difficult to focus.

"WE"

The word was even louder than the alarm sounds, piercing through the Doctor's head, making the pain even worse.

"WE HAVE" Images of police, a woman crying… a flash of the girl on the orange dress again.

"WE HAVE HER!" A spiny, clawed hand snatched the sleeping child, and the Doctor's mind was released. He fell back against the window, breathing heavily, wincing at residual pain.

Then he remembered why the images were so familiar, and his eyes went wide with terror.

It was about a week ago. Jackie was over; when she called to ask if they were home, she was squealing that she'd found something she just had to show Rose. "It must have been tucked behind one of the other pictures in my wallet," She said, showing Rose an old, tiny photograph. "It fell out earlier and I noticed and just _had_ to show you! This is the oldest picture I have of us in this barmy parallel universe!"

Rose took the picture and immediately laughed, loud and long. The Doctor was in their office, doing one of his favorite relaxation activities: furiously editing Wikipedia entries to make them more accurate and reporting other editors who disagreed. When he heard Rose's laughter, he went out to the living room to see what was so funny (and to see that look she got when she laughed – so unapologetically joyful and something he would never tire of).

"Doctor! Doctor, look at this!" Rose trotted over to him with the picture. It was of Jackie and Rose at a Christmas party, all dressed up. Rose was about two, blonde hair practically shining like the puffy green dress she wore. Jackie was holding her, smiling proudly…and wearing the ugliest orange dress the Doctor had ever seen, complete with giant fabric flowers around the entire bottom of the gown. "Oh, Mum," Rose said, "that 'lucky dress' of yours was so unfortunate looking."

"Oh, I know," Jackie laughed. "But it kept you safe when I'd thought I'd lost you, and so I was determined to wear it at least a few times."

The Doctor gave Rose a quizzical glance. She told him the story of her mother's shopping trip, when Rose had wandered off and was finally found two hours later, completely hidden by a rack of clothes, sound asleep on the orange dress.

The Doctor now recognized the images that had assaulted his mind moments earlier. They were of young Rose, only this time, she wasn't found safely. She was stolen. But who would take her from another time? Another _universe_? He focused on the image of the eerie, monstrous hand that snatched the toddler away. It looked familiar, but then again, he'd faced so many monsters with spiky, spindly claws that it didn't really make them stand out. What did make them stand out, however, was their _modus operandi_. There was a species whose almost exclusive source of income and power was kidnapping ransom: the Lamagai. They were from the same star system as the Slitheen, but while the Slitheen robbed planets of their resources, the Lamagai robbed families of their children. Theirs might be a smaller scale operation, but it was every bit as devastating.

The Doctor realized if they could communicate with him telepathically, then he could probably reach the Lamagai the same way. Besides, they hadn't yet asked for a specific ransom and he wasn't going to wait around for them to do so. He focused all of his energy and, trying not to project the desperation he was feeling, mentally asked, "_What do you want in exchange for her safe return?"_

The response was swift, painful, and direct.

"YOU."

"_You'll get what you want_," he sent back. "_And when you do, you'll realize just how grave a mistake you've made._"

The Doctor stood up, fiery determination burning through him. He walked to the kitchen to get some water. Using the dimension cannon wreaks havoc on the body and he couldn't risk being weakened further by something as stupid as dehydration. He filled a glass, chugged it down, and nearly broke it as he slammed it down on the table.

A second later, Rose walked through the front door. "Hi, Doctor!" she said brightly as she hung up her coat and headed over to him. She gave him a quick peck on the lips, and then noticed the look on his face. "What's wrong?"

The Doctor looked at his wife, the one person in the universe he really, truly trusted. The one person he could confide in about anything.

Anything but this.

He tried to get it over with as quickly as possible. "I need to take the TARDIS somewhere. It's important that I go right now, and you can't come with me."

Something about his steely tone made Rose snap. She'd had enough headaches at work today and didn't have time for his games. Angry, she backed away from him, crossed her arms, and planted her feet. Rose Tyler wouldn't be left behind without a fight.


End file.
